Alabama prosecutors are in an awfully big rush to get another execution date for an inmate with key issues pending in court

Monday, September 29, 2008

THE ISSUE: State prosecutors are in an awfully big rush to
get another execution date for an inmate with key issues
pending in court. Judges are rightly applying the brakes.

The state of Alabama has no business trying to execute
Thomas Arthur anytime soon.

The Alabama Supreme Court said as much last week when it
ruled 6-2 against Attorney General Troy King's request
to set an execution date for Arthur. The justices have every
reason to hold off.

For starters, another prisoner has confessed to the murder
that put Arthur on Death Row. Although awfully convenient
and dubious, the confession must be investigated before
Arthur is put to death for killing Troy Wicker.

Part of that investigation ought to include DNA testing,
which Arthur has sought for years, to no avail.
Unfortunately, the state recently acknowledged some of the
evidence in the case that could be tested for DNA - a rape
kit - is missing.

Just as unfortunately, the state has resisted testing any
of the evidence, arguing on one hand the case against Arthur
is overwhelming and on the other hand that scientific
screening wouldn't turn up Arthur's DNA.

Yes, you're reading that right. State prosecutors
have said they don't think the DNA testing would
incriminate Arthur, who they say planted false evidence at
the scene without leaving behind any of his own genetic
material. That's a strange argument for prosecutors to
make, even in a case as strange as this one.

Prosecutors say the victim's wife, Judy Wicker, paid Arthur to carry out the 1982 murder. Mrs. Wicker, who also was convicted in the murder, at first claimed an intruder killed her husband and raped her - hence, the rape evidence that has since gone missing. Judy Wicker later changed her story and implicated Arthur in a deal that won her an early release from prison. Arthur has admitted having an affair with Mrs. Wicker, but has denied killing her husband....